Plum Innovations founder Ji Li

CHRISTOPHER JACKSON INTERVIEWS THE FOUNDER OF IMPRESSIVE START-UP PLUM INNOVATIONS, A COMPANY WITH THE WIND IN ITS SAILS

The young Edtech company Plum Innovations is one of the success stories of the pandemic. When you talk to its founder Ji Li, you soon feel pleased for him: there’s always room in the world for unassuming and competent leaders.

Plum’s business is to assist its client base – which consists of a range of 14 schools – with their Edtech delivery.

Li comes from Shanghai, China and has seen the business that he founded as a sole trader in 2014 grow by word of mouth: “I was working for a school and the head teacher recommended me by word of mouth.” He had soon incorporated Plum Innovations and has now grown the business to four people.

So how does the business work? Li works with schools to set up their Google systems and make sure that the teachers are confident with Google Classroom, a system which, Li argues, has many benefits: “It’s really powerful, but it’s also cloud-based, and it’s secure,” he tells me. “In addition, it’s free and teachers can access their files remotely regardless of where they are.”